If you thought Ellen DeGeneres‘ star-studded, Twitter-breaking Oscars selfie couldn’t possibly get any more charming, think again. (Or, if you thought it couldn’t be any more deeplycrafted as an ad, think again.) Simpsons creator Matt Groening and the Legoland Manchester have each offered their own takes on the meme-ready moment, and the results are exactly as amazing as you’d expect. Then there’s a more biting revision of it that would make John Carpenter happy.

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Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony had no shortage of A-lister attendees, but the star who really stole the show wasn’t a celebrity at all. It was Edgar Martirosyan, a delivery guy from Big Mama’s and Papa’s Pizzeria in Hollywood.

While a typical trip for him might yield a few bucks’ tip, Matirosyan’s extra-special delivery to Hollywood’s richest and hungriest yielded an extra-special payoff on The Ellen Show this week. Watch him tell his amazing story and collect his four-figure tip after the jump.

In truth, it’s a bit early to be thinking about the Oscars. The awards ceremony isn’t for another two and a half months, and nominations won’t even be announced for another month. Heck, nominations voting doesn’t even begin for another few days. But when the first promo for the event is this charming, it’s tough to complain much.

Set to Fitz and The Tantrums‘ “The Walker,” the spot has Oscar host Ellen DeGeneres getting dressed and then sashaying down a studio street with 250 dancers behind her. Paul Feig directed, I suppose because he’s currently the go-to guy for anything funny that stars a woman. Hit the jump to watch the trailer.

We know more about Andrew Stanton‘s Finding Dory, the sequel to Finding Nemo, than we did about the other Pixar projects on display at D23 today. And yet there’s more to learn, and the presentation of the film today featured some big cast announcements. Read More »

Briefly: Seth MacFarlane won’t be back to host the Oscars when the awards are given out on March 2 next year. Just a day after the election of new AMPAS president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, we’ve got the announcement of the next Oscar host.

Ellen Degeneres, who has hosted the telecast once before, in 2007, will take her second turn on the Oscar stage. She drew criticism after that first turn for being too understated and low-key as the guide of a show that meandered to a dull four-hour length. Hopefully the Academy has taken some notes about what worked in the past few years. Don’t expect to see Ellen singing a sequel to MacFarlane’s song ‘We Saw Your Boobs,’ but more song and dance numbers are a pretty safe bet.

Andrew Stanton‘s rumored return to Pixar is now official. He’ll return with the sequel toFinding Nemo, called Finding Dory. The film will be released by Disney and Pixar on November 25, 2015. It takes place about a full year after the events of Finding Nemo and sees the return of Ellen DeGeneres as the title character. Albert Brooks is also expected to return, and we’ll see a slew of new characters including Dory’s family, who will be at the center of the story.

When it was announced last month that Pixar was developing a sequel to Finding Nemo, we pretty much assumed that all the creatives would be back for the follow-up. Writer/director Andrew Stanton had never been excited about doing a sequel but it was revealed he was on board and that the braintrust “has a concept the studio loves.”

So it comes as no surprise that the Hollywood trades are reporting that Ellen DeGeneres is in talks to return for the sequel. DeGeneres has been publicly pushing for a sequel on her long-running daytime talk show for almost a decade, so it’s doubtful that she’d say no.

Selling a 3D movie through 2D technology (like our computer screens) always presents a bit of a challenge, but even more so when it’s a 3D converted movie of a 2D film that first came out nine years ago. After all, there’s no new dialogue or footage to pick over, and little insight to be gained by watching a new cut of the trailer.

Fortunately, in the case of Pixar’s re-release of Finding Nemo, the tale is already so charming in any number of dimensions that it’s still a treat to watch Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) navigating the wild waters, even if we’ve seen it all before. Watch the trailer after the jump.

It’s been ten years since Ellen DeGeneres took a live action film role – well, outside of TV movies anyhow. Back then she was in the one-two double whammy of EdTV and The Love Letter, both of which I saw and neither of which I enjoyed (though The Love Letter was just a normal kind of bad). Since then, Ellen has had her TV shows – sitcom and chat – and a star turn as Dory in Pixar’s Finding Nemo, so the last decade has actually been pretty kind to her.

Why then, do you suppose, that she’s sticking her neck out there for a high-concept FX comedy from a Sex and the City screenwriter and produced by Walden Media (and all that implies)?